School of Allied Health Sciences issues SOS

The Dean of the School of Allied Health Sciences (SAHS) of the University of Ghana, Reverend Professor Patrick F. Ayeh-Kubi has appealed for urgent support to rehabilitate the school’s infrastructure, which he said was in a deplorable state.

Rev. Prof. Ayeh-Kubi made the appeal Friday at an alumni dinner and fund-raising event held at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) in Accra to raise money for SAHS.

The school, which is located within KATH, currently has 569 students who are being trained in courses such laboratory technology and radiology.

Infrastructural facilities in the school however, have neither been renovated nor expanded for many years, causing them to deteriorate.

“We don’t have much actually to work with at all. If you look at facilities for academic work, we are very low. We have lecture halls, but we don’t have enough. We have laboratories, we don’t have enough,” the Dean said.

He added that SAHS’ main building at Legon campus hadn’t seen much development in the past few years. “It’s a disturbing situation,” he noted, saying, “We have received some help from GET FUND in the past. Now, they don’t have money to offer so we have not been able to continue with the structure.”

Rev. Prof. Ayeh-Kubi stressed that the school’s hostel, especially, was in a deplorable state and needed to be rehabilitated immediately.

According to him, students of the school had complained bitterly about the state of the hostel, but lacking the means to renovate it, the Dean said the school had appealed to them to be patient.

“I believe that since it was built it hasn’t seen any major renovations yet,” he said of the hostel.

“The school has been trying to do bits and pieces on that but that cannot bring it to the level we expect it to be. We need to paint the whole place up. We need to fix the rooms. We need to fix the doors. There are electrical problems, and plumbing works. We have problems, colossal problems on our hands,” the Dean lamented.

He said it was this “colossal” problem that compelled him to invite the school’s alumni to contribute financially towards the uplift of the hostel.

Rev. Prof Ayeh-Kubi, therefore urged the old students present at the gathering to contribute financially towards the development of their alma mater. “Others have built the foundation for us. We have to build the superstructure on it,” he said, adding, “Let us be those who will support the school. Let everyone see that we can make it.”

Responding to the Dean’s clarion call, the alumni pledged GHC12,710 towards the development of the hostel.

Mr. Ignatius A. Nchor, who spoke on behalf of the alumni, echoed the Dean’s dissatisfaction with the deplorable state of infrastructure at the school.

“A lot has not changed in terms of infrastructure since we left. The hostel has suffered depreciation,” he said

Rev. Prof. Ayeh-Kubi told the Daily Graphic that the school hoped to raise about GHȼ200,000 through the fund raising. He appealed to individuals, companies and institutions to support efforts to renovate SAHS’s hostel.

“People can come in and help to brand the place. People can take blocks and floors and brand them – put their names of them. I think that’s the way to go,” he emphasised. The Dean also called on the government to help complete the school’s main building at Legon, which he said had been “stuck to the ground” due to lack of funds.